Widely regarded as the premier piano trio of its generation, the Claremont
Trio is sought after for its thrillingly virtuosic and richly communicative
performances. First winners of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International
Trio Award and the only piano trio ever to win the Young Concert Artists
International Auditions, the Claremonts are consistently lauded for
their "aesthetic maturity, interpretive depth, and exuberance"
(Palm Beach Daily News).

Equally passionate about the standard repertoire and the music of
our time, the Claremonts celebrated the release of two CDs in 2009
spanning music from Beethoven to Mason Bates. "American Trios"
on Tria Records is the first disc to present both of Leon Kirchner’s
piano trios and was recorded in honor his 90th birthday year. The
disc also features Paul Schoenfield’s “Café Music,”
Ellen Zwilich’s “Trio,” and Mason Bates’ “String
Band” (written for the Claremont Trio in 2002). The group's
other recent release, on Ongaku Records, is a collaborative project
with clarinetist Jonathan Cohler, including works by Beethoven, Brahms,
and Dohnanyi. The recording garnered a glowing review in Fanfare magazine
and received a Critic’s CHOICE award from BBC magazine, which
cited the “splendidly enjoyable” disc’s “real
intensity through eloquent phrasing and responsive teamwork.”

The Claremonts return to Boston’s prestigious Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum for a series of three performances during the 2009-10
season. The season also includes engagements at the University of
Wisconsin, Houghton College, and Elmira College and the Chamber Music
Societies of Dallas, Bethlehem (PA), and Logan (UT), along with the
Concert Associations of Merrick (NY) and South Windsor (CT). The Trio
makes its debut at West Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts
and performs as ensemble-in-residence at California’s Laguna
Beach Live. They continue to maintain a strong New York presence,
adding Queens College’s LeFrak Concert Hall to a list of New
York venues that includes Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and Miller Theatre
as well as the downtown venues of New York Public Theatre’s
Joe’s Pub and Le Poisson Rouge.

Return engagements at Carnegie Hall and Washington D.C.’s Kennedy
Center were part of the Trio’s 10th anniversary season in 2008-09.
An extensive countrywide tour in that season also encompassed major
venues in Boston, Seattle, Phoenix, Anchorage, Syracuse, Columbus,
and Puerto Rico as well as the universities of Duke, Kansas State
and SUNY Purchase. In addition to presenting the world premiere performance
of Nico Muhly’s Common Ground, at the Kennedy Center, they also
performed Mason Bates’ new work, “Red River” (2007)
for piano trio, clarinet, and electronics and were featured in special
concerts celebrating Leon Kirchner’s 90th and Elliott Carter’s
100th birthdays.

Believing that education on all levels is essential to the future
of classical music, the Claremont Trio is extensively involved in
teaching the next generation of musicians and music lovers. Sought
after for their effectiveness in the classroom as well as on the concert
stage, the Trio regularly conducts educational outreach activities
and master classes, most recently at the Peabody Conservatory’s
Preparatory Division, where they conducted a mini-residency, and at
the University of Washington, where they led a series of master classes.
Other recent master classes have been at Eastman School of Music,
Duke University, Boston Conservatory, Purchase College at SUNY, Middlebury
College, the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, Longy School of Music,
Kansas State University, and Gettysburg College's Sunderman Conservatory.

Deeply committed to expanding the trio repertoire, the Trio works
actively with composers on new works including a piece by Howard Frazin
they will premier this year. They have also commissioned works from
Nico Muhly, Daniel Kellogg, Mason Bates, and Hillary Zipper, and have
an ongoing collaboration with innovative composer and violinist Daniel
Bernard Roumain.

In recent seasons, the Trio has performed at Avery Fisher Hall and
Alice Tully Hall in New York's Lincoln Center; the UCLA Center for
the Performing Arts; Stanford Lively Arts; the La Jolla Music Society;
the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase; the Kravis Center for
the Performing Arts; and Wolf Trap. They have been featured guests
of the chamber music societies of Detroit, Cincinnati, Kansas City,
Louisville, and San Antonio. Summer festival appearances have included
the Saratoga, Mostly Mozart, Caramoor, Ravinia, Bard, Rockport, Norfolk,
and Cape Cod Chamber Music festivals. The Trio also has performed
at the American Academy in Rome, and in 2002 they traveled to Bosnia,
Serbia, and Slovenia as part of a cultural exchange co-sponsored by
the U.S. State Department and Carnegie Hall.

The Claremont Trio frequently performs the Beethoven Triple Concerto
with orchestras. It adds the Canton Symphony Orchestra in 2009-10
to an impressive list with which it has performed the work, including
the Utah Symphony, Virginia Symphony, and Pacific Symphony. They have
collaborated with Peter Martins, director of the New York City Ballet,
on a ballet based on Paul Schoenfield's "Cafe Music". They
have also been privileged to perform with many distinguished guest
artists including Toby Appel, Joseph Kalichstein, Martha Katz, Jaime
Laredo, Ida Kavafian, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Sharon Robinson, and Richard
Young.

The Claremont Trio’s debut CD of Mendelssohn trios was released
on the Arabesque label in 2004 to overwhelming critical acclaim. Gramophone
magazine praised the disc for giving "large-scale performances
with a sweeping, romantic sense of space and strong dramatic contrasts,"
while Strings celebrated the Trio’s ability to "find a
cool equilibrium between industry and frivolity where an elegant,
totally Mendelssohnian sexiness resides." The group’s second
disc of Shostakovich and Arensky trios was released on Tria Records
in 2006 in honor of the 100th anniversary of Shostakovich’s
birth.

The Claremont Trio has been featured on Japanese and American television
and is heard on radio stations throughout the U.S. and abroad, including
Australia’s ABC, New York’s WQXR, Boston’s WGBH,
Chicago’s WFMT, Salt Lake City’s KBYU, and Columbia University’s
WKCR. Since 2006, they have kept a blog on their website which describes
their adventures on the road. Through this online tour diary the members
of the trio reach out to friends and music lovers of all ages around
the world, offering a window into their lives as traveling musicians.

Twin sisters Emily Bruskin (violin) and Julia Bruskin (cello) formed
the Trio with Donna Kwong (piano) in 1999 at The Juilliard School.
The Claremonts are based in New York City near their namesake: Claremont
Avenue.